Aperture Education Announces Micro-grant Recipients

Charlotte N.C. (April 20, 2018) — Social-emotional learning company Aperture Education today announced the recipients of its 2018 micro-grant program for schools and out-of-school-time organizations. The micro-grant program provides up to $20,000 to help the winners get started in assessing students’ social and emotional competencies.

The grants provide six months of access to Evo Social/Emotional, Aperture Education’s online social-emotional learning (SEL) assessment and intervention system, as well as training to help them implement it. Evo Social/Emotional features the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) to measure students’ SEL competencies.

The recipients are:

Waukegan Community Unit School District #60 in Illinois. The district has a student population that is at high-risk for developing social, emotional and academic difficulties. It plans to implement a district-wide SEL program in 2018-19 to enhance students’ SEL competencies, reduce disciplinary incidents, and improve engagement. The micro-grant will allow it to incorporate Evo Social/Emotional into that plan and help it identify students who need extra SEL support.

Milwaukee Public Schools in Wisconsin. The district recently launched a district-wide SEL program, but has not yet begun collecting effectiveness data. The micro-grant will allow the district to gather SEL assessment data to inform instruction, guide next-steps for SEL professional development, and determine the effectiveness of its SEL interventions.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary in Canada. The clubs are located in communities in which many children and families experience economic stress and other challenges. The clubs focus on social-emotional learning as part of a larger outcome framework that guides healthy development and increases skills of children and families. Clubs will use the data from Evo Social/Emotional to inform program decisions, guide staff training, target specific individual and group skill development areas, and support its work to secure sustainable funding.

“For our grants, we reviewed many impressive applications from school districts and organizations that are doing great work around social-emotional learning,” said Marc Kirsch, Aperture Education’s Director of Sales and Business Development. “We were heartened to see so many organizations recognizing the importance of a data-driven approach to SEL. We are looking forward to working with these four organizations to help them use assessments to further develop and inform their SEL programs.”

Aperture Education supports educators, administrators and out-of-school-time providers in implementing social and emotional learning programs within their schools or programs. The micro-grant program is part of its ongoing work to support the whole child.

About Aperture Education

Aperture Education is a social enterprise focused on addressing the whole child. Its social and emotional learning (SEL) solution, Evo Social/Emotional features the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA), a standardized, strengths-based measure of critical social and emotional skills. The Evo Social/Emotional online system includes both the DESSA and the DESSA-mini, a universal screener of social and emotional competence administered in less than a minute. Evo Social/Emotional also provides growth strategies and foundational practices to strengthen social and emotional skills. Its data helps SEL program administrators measure the impact of their programs and helps educators understand students’ SEL strengths and needs. For more information, go towww.ApertureEd.com.